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Thursday, 18 October 2012

M.E? It's Not Fluffy Is It?

If you walked into a room
full of people holding a pussycat, you would pretty much expect an automatic
response of ooohs and aaaaahs, I’d go further to say there would be a majority
of those that wanted a stroke and those that wanted a hold because most of us
are familiar with cats, and even if we don’t own one we pretty much have an
understanding of a cat, it’s rare that tha presence of one provokes a negative
response.

(Unless its sh*tting on my
lawn of course in which case I automatically
wave my arms about & bang on tha window shouting out incoherent
ranty stuff like a demented woman)

Now rewind and go back into
that room holding a rat, and I would guarantee you the automatic response would
be eeeeeeugh, shudders, and “keep that thing away from me”

Tha automatic response has
come from what we’ve been fed throughout tha years via history & media, It’s
fed to us in a way that’s caused scaremongering and prejudice. Many people associate
cat =nice, rat =bad, & its always going to be hard to change that. Where am
I going with this you may ask?........

Well unfortunatley M.E is tha
rat of tha illness world, its not seen as a fluffy, or cute, or popular, tha
majority of people I’ve come across are quite defensive almost frightened by
it, while others are apprehensive and inquisitive , either way it doesn’t bode
well for us does it?

Most people associate rats
with the bubonic plague which conjures up a dirty, diseased, unacceptable image
. Tha mere mention of tha word “rat” often promotes a negative response as does
tha mention of M.E. Infact we have quite
a lot of similarities when all said and done. M.E has always been shrouded in
tha “what came first, tha physical or tha psychological debacle” .

We as
sufferers know without doubt it’s only through living with tha physical
symptons that we ended up with psychological problems, that is normal with any
longterm illness, and yet you don’t hear that questioned with any other
illness, just M.E. I’ve had many a conversation with people where they’ve said
“ah, yes but it’s one of those, what came first the chicken or the egg
scenarios isn’t it?” In many cases I’m left feeling guilty, as if I’m to blame
somehow for my own illness.

When someone tells me they
have heart problems, I wouldn’t dream of saying “hey maybe you didn’t clean
your teeth properly, you know, it’s a fact that not getting in-between those
gaps can do some damage you know?”

And yet people find it
acceptable and ok to tell us that while our symptoms maybe real our illness is
actually all in our head? Based on???????????? …yep, wrong facts,
scaremongering and crap journalistic content that seems to have gone on
throughout history.

So who was to blame for tha
bubonic plague…tha rat for having tha disease in tha first place or tha flea
for spreading it?. & If we listened
to tha Christians their theory was that jewish people were to blame for it, tha
reason being…..er…well…there was no reason, according to Christians tha jews
were to blame for everything, so why not tha bubonic plague aswell. LOL! Tha Italians even got tha blame for awhile
too for spreading it from port to port when they travelled.

Our illness has long been
surrounded by controversy, misunderstandings & blame. Celebrities are happy to come
out in their droves for a fluffy illness, but how many would stand up for M.E?
My requests have always fallen on deaf ears, I’ve never even had a response.
When it comes to fundraising people seem quite happy to put their hand in their
pockets for a fluffy illness but not for M.E. They’re always going to save tha
cat sanctuary over tha rat sanctuary.

I even checked in yesterday
to see how my own efforts at fundraising for Invest In M.E was doing, &
from last july 2011 when tha M.E track “I cant stand tha rain” was released to
September 2012 it’s had 8 downloads at 79p and some streams at various prices
& made a total of $8.20 & yes that’s
in dollars so in UK terms that’s just over £5. That’s despite all tha paid
advertising that I’ve done for it and promoting and tha promoting that a very good
friend has done on a daily basis to support tha cause & one of those eight downloads
was me because I was trying to lead by
example.

Theres always going to be a million
and one excuses but tha bottom line is sometimes we have to make sacrifices and
actually stand behind our words if somethings important enough, most of us are
in tha same poor financial situation, but if rats cant even support their
fellow rats then how do we expect to entice those who prefer a fluffy illness to
part with their cash if we’re not prepared to do it ourselves?

I’m quite happy to bear
similarities with a rat, you see they are lovin and loyal companions that thrive
with human affection, they are extremely intelligent & can be taught to
come by name, they are also extremely tough, they can be dropped from tha fifth
floor of a block of flats and survive

( Not that I’m aiming to
follow suit, although there are times when theres temptation to throw myself
off tha nearest balcony due to peoples overwhelming ignorance)

Rats can overcome just about
anything by biting through it, and as M.E sufferers we too do a pretty good job
of dealing with & overcoming everything that’s thrown at us. I just wish we
were also allowed to use our teeth as I can think of a few politicians,
doctors, scientists pyschologists and journalists I’d like to sink mine into.

M.E may always be tha rat of
tha illness world, and never gain a fluffy tag but all we can do is keep trying
to educate people & hope that we can change their perception of tha illness
and us as people.